In the Footsteps of Lewis & Clark
A day-long journey beside Northern Idaho’s Clearwater River gave us a feel and an insight for this land as Lewis and Clark experienced it almost 200 years ago.
With few exceptions The Corps of Discovery’s route has been so altered by development that few of the original campsites are accessible or recognizable. Most sites along the length of the Missouri, lower Snake and Columbia Rivers are covered by great reservoirs.
But the free-flowing Clearwater River and its valley, hemmed by the pine clad Bitterroot Mountains, was as real as that long ago text in the journals. Our first stop was the site of a 150-foot lodge where Capt. Clark treated the medical needs of the occupants in exchange for “horsebeef” to replenish the meager food supply. At a riverside bench with lofty Ponderosa pines we learned this was Canoe Camp where the Nez Perce people showed the party, on almost this exact date, how to make five dugouts by a combination of burning and adzing the split pine logs. From this point the Corps journeyed the final 450 miles to the Pacific Ocean by water.
At Long Camp our local guide, Linwood Laughy of Clearwater Connections, described the month’s wait in June of 1805 before the Corps was able to break through the snow on the heights of the Lolo Trail. During the wait they socialized with the Nez Perce, traded and held dances and foot and horse races.
Linwood also led us to the Treaty Council Camp in a meadow above Kamiah where Lewis and Clark negotiated with the four most powerful of the Nez Perce chiefs. Our guide’s presentation was briefly halted and all eyes turned aloft when Naturalist Lindy Hopkins pointed to an adult Golden Eagle riding the updrafts of this Indian summer day.
The Clearwater sparkled and reflected the mingled red, bronze and gold of the bracken fern, red osier, sumac, chokecherry and sandbar willow. It was a day where we could turn back to the time and the place. This Clearwater excursion was a touchstone to the real Lewis and Clark, a day our Smithsonian Associates will always savor.
A day-long journey beside Northern Idaho’s Clearwater River gave us a feel and an insight for this land as Lewis and Clark experienced it almost 200 years ago.
With few exceptions The Corps of Discovery’s route has been so altered by development that few of the original campsites are accessible or recognizable. Most sites along the length of the Missouri, lower Snake and Columbia Rivers are covered by great reservoirs.
But the free-flowing Clearwater River and its valley, hemmed by the pine clad Bitterroot Mountains, was as real as that long ago text in the journals. Our first stop was the site of a 150-foot lodge where Capt. Clark treated the medical needs of the occupants in exchange for “horsebeef” to replenish the meager food supply. At a riverside bench with lofty Ponderosa pines we learned this was Canoe Camp where the Nez Perce people showed the party, on almost this exact date, how to make five dugouts by a combination of burning and adzing the split pine logs. From this point the Corps journeyed the final 450 miles to the Pacific Ocean by water.
At Long Camp our local guide, Linwood Laughy of Clearwater Connections, described the month’s wait in June of 1805 before the Corps was able to break through the snow on the heights of the Lolo Trail. During the wait they socialized with the Nez Perce, traded and held dances and foot and horse races.
Linwood also led us to the Treaty Council Camp in a meadow above Kamiah where Lewis and Clark negotiated with the four most powerful of the Nez Perce chiefs. Our guide’s presentation was briefly halted and all eyes turned aloft when Naturalist Lindy Hopkins pointed to an adult Golden Eagle riding the updrafts of this Indian summer day.
The Clearwater sparkled and reflected the mingled red, bronze and gold of the bracken fern, red osier, sumac, chokecherry and sandbar willow. It was a day where we could turn back to the time and the place. This Clearwater excursion was a touchstone to the real Lewis and Clark, a day our Smithsonian Associates will always savor.
